Buprenorphine cuts length of stay nearly in half for infants withdrawing from opioids

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-05/tju-bcl050417.php

Public Release: 4-May-2017
Buprenorphine cuts length of stay nearly in half for infants withdrawing from opioids
New method likely to change practice in NICUs internationally
Thomas Jefferson University

Babies born to women who have used opioids at any point during pregnancy are at risk of suffering withdrawal symptoms - collectively called neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) - that can cause serious problems in the infant. To reduce the severity of these symptoms, infants are treated with opioids and then slowly weaned off over the course of about a month, requiring a prolonged hospital stay. New research published May 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that a more effective treatment can safely cut the duration of therapy nearly in half.

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The research team found that the 30 infants treated with morphine required the therapy for an average of 28 days before their withdrawal symptoms were under control and they were fully weaned. Whereas the 33 infants allocated to buprenorphine only required an average of 15 days of the medication. The buprenorphine reduced treatment time by 47 percent.

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tags: drug abuse, drug use